Art Notes: Pentangle Names New Director

Gary Alan Wood and his wife bought what he called “a little shack in the woods” in West Woodstock in 2006 as a getaway from New Orleans.

So when an opening for executive director at Woodstock’s Pentangle Arts Council came open, the veteran arts administrator was interested. Pentangle announced it had hired Wood over the weekend.

“To me it’s a combination of a place that my wife and I just dearly love” and a chance to manage an arts organization that enhances its community’s quality of life, Wood said in a phone interview.

Wood, 55, will replace Sunni Fass, who left in November after two years at the helm of Pentangle. He has worked in arts administration since 1998 and is currently director of the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn., which comprises a 740-seat theater, a 120-seat black box experimental theater and the Thomas J. Walsh Gallery.

“He has such a breadth and depth of experience in arts programming,” said Keri Cole, chairwoman of Pentangle’s board of trustees. The board chose Wood from a strong pool of applicants, Cole said.

A native of St. Paul, Minn., Wood started his career in music education, teaching band and orchestra in schools. He moved into adminstration as manager of education and outreach for the Minnesota Orchestra. He has also worked as an orchestral music presenter in Houston, Texas and as president and CEO of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

Wood won’t be full time at Pentangle until July 1, but he plans to be in Woodstock regularly. “I definitely want to be there as frequently as I can to meet people in the community,” he said. He’s also in the middle of closing out the Quick Center’s season and planning the next season of arts events.

Among his duties at Pentangle will be planning the organization’s 40th anniversary season next year and the next capital campaign.

Pentangle presents performing arts and movies in Woodstock’s Town Hall Theatre. When they started coming to their Woodstock cabin, Wood and his wife, the concert pianist Sakiko Ohashi, got to know Pentangle by attending movies at Town Hall and free summer concerts on the village green.

Wood said he and his wife are looking forward to bringing their 2-year-old son to Woodstock. “I just can’t imagine a more wonderful place for him to grow up,” Wood said.

Of Note

AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon has announced the award winners in its 6th annual “Best of the Upper Valley High School Exhibition.” The winners in a range of media are: Best in Ceramics: Colby Little, Kimball Union Academy, Grade 12; Best in Digital Art: Hailee Grisham, Holderness School, Grade 12; Best in Drawing: Yen Truong, Lebanon High School, Grade 12; Best in Mixed-Media: Carlie Ulman, Thetford Academy, Grade 12; Best in Painting: Jody Koloski, Newport High School, Grade 12; Best in Photography: Noah Lin, Holderness School, Grade 9; Best in Printmaking: Isabelle O’Connor, The Sharon Academy, Grade 12; Best in Sculpture: Amy Lebrecque, Mascoma Valley Regional High School, Grade 9; Best in Wearable Art: Claire Callahan, Hanover High School, Grade 12; Juror’s Recognition Award: Kristen Pearson, Hanover High School, Grade 12. The exhibition remains on view through March 14.

∎ Two Rivers Printmaking Workshop holds a monoprint workshop with Lois Beatty on Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. Printmakers of all levels are welcome. Monoprinting is a very open printmaking method, in some ways more akin to painting than to etching or lithography. The workshop this weekend costs $195 per person, plus a $25 materials fee. Call 802-295-5901 or email trps@sover.net to register.

Openings and Receptions

Painters Georgina Forbes and Rebecca Gottesman and photographer Jon Olsen will open their studios on the second floor of the Tip Top Media and Arts Building as part of White River Junction’s First Friday. The studios will be open Friday from 5 to 8 p.m.

∎ The arts program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center exhibits mixed media by Donna Allen, woodblock prints by Matt Brown, photographs by Cathy Cone, acrylics, watercolor and colored pencil by Amy Fortier and photographs by Carla Kimball. The exhibit will continue through March.

∎ “Lemurs Will Follow You Home,” recent work by Strafford artist Cecily Herzig, is on view in the Hotel Coolidge’s Zollikofer Gallery in White River Junction through March 19.

∎ The Norwich Historical Society is exhibiting six recently acquired portraits of members of two of Norwich’s earliest families, the Hutchinsons and the Lovelands, into late June. Visitors are welcome Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., or by appointment. Call 802-649-0124 or email info@norwichhistory.org.

∎ “Observing Vermont Architecture,” an exhibition of photographs by Curtis B. Johnson at the Middlebury College Museum of Art, is a companion to the publication of Buildings of Vermont, which features Johnson’s photographs and text by Middlebury College art professor Glenn Andres. on remains on view through March 23.